Ola commits ₹500 crore over 1 year to make rides safer amid Covid-19

Ride-hailing major Ola on Friday pledged ₹500 crore over the next year towards various initiatives globally to enhance safety in mobility amid Covid-19.

As part of the new "Ride Safe India" initiative, Ola said it will aim to bring a host of technology advancements including a newly designed Covid-ready app, hygiene and safety benchmark for vehicles and an industry-wide collective mission in its fight against the pandemic.

Driver safety will continue to be a focus for the company with the introduction of dedicated training modules and certification, said Ola which has resumed operations across the country and is now available in over 200 cities and towns.

The training modules will also include strict adherence to daily temperature checks and wearing of masks through the selfie authentication mechanism, it added.

'We have already pioneered a series of initiatives including regular driver wellness checks, vehicle fumigation protocols and mask-detection technology amongst others to raise the bar of safety for consumers and driver-partners,' Anand Subramanian, spokesperson and Head of Communications, Ola, said in a statement.

'We are taking this further by building a robust network of 500 fumigation centres across the country. Our commitment of ₹500 crore towards various safety initiatives globally in the time to come, will help pave the way for new standards of mobility in the post-Covid world,' Subramanian added.

Ola said it has set up a network of over 500 fumigation centres across the country at various hotspots and airports, to enable mandatory fumigation for all vehicles every 48 hours.

The ride-hailing major last month announced the decision to lay off 1,400 employees as revenues fell 95 per cent in two months amid the coronavirus crisis.